EU telcoms commissioner Vivianne Reding may have had her attempt to reduce roaming data charges thwarted last month - but she isn’t giving up that easily.

While Europe’s price ceiling for making roaming calls falls further this Saturday, the reductions do not apply to SMS or data. Reding said today: “The next challenge is now to bring about a single market for roaming text messages and data services. I count on the French presidency and on the European Parliament to help the commission solve this problem very soon.”

Reding highlighted a recent report that showed customers pay an average €2.05 per Mb on EU carriers with whom their home network has a group relationship (€5.40 for others and as much as €12 in Italy and Slovakia) - “still very high”. Indeed, bill shock could significantly impede the mobile internet content market in Europe.

Reding’s pinning hopes on an ongoing review of the EU Roaming Regulation, legislation she steered in 2006 that has led to the an estimated 60 percent cut in voice prices but which expires in 2010. She wants to pin roaming SMS at between €0.11 and €0.15, and says a decision is expected on what to do with the regulation “in the coming weeks’.

Despite threatening networks with a data price cap by July, Reding’s deputy commissioner last month said he instead favored better consumer awareness of existing roaming costs.

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